Projecting how AI will interact within society

In my previous article, I briefly discussed AI's social and economic impact, and how it promises to rearrange the work landscape. I want to extend that train of thought and model scenarios where we see an ideological clash between two primary mindsets. I will call these mindsets, 'Humanities' and 'Scientific Temper'. This is not an attempt to exacerbate the prevailing schism between people from Humanities and STEM majors backgrounds. However, we are indeed seeing a binary clash of narratives (in the West, at least!), a tussle between right-brained thinkers, opinion makers, who constitute a big part of the media, and left-brained, tech-led STEM practitioners or advocates who believe that AI will not harm human society but instead drive more efficiency. Then, there is also an audience that forms the intersection of these two narratives. Both the narratives will have to contend with a third AI narrative, which I suspect, might be a surrogate in disguise to Scientific Temper, ultimately replacing it. All three narratives, in turn, are part of human society. I have considered 10 years for these scenarios (2024-2034).

I have coded in Python and used Google Colab as my IDE. Here is the base state...

Humanities Circle

• Represents the importance and quantum of empathy, creativity, and cultural understanding in a highly AI-influenced world.
• This could also reflect increasing enrollment in humanities programs, as a contrarian to the AI-influenced STEM programs world.

Scientific Temper Circle

• Expands at a comparatively slower pace. This growth is steady given the necessary role of rational inquiry and evidence-based thinking to balance emotional or cultural considerations.

AI Circle

• Rapid growth reflects AI’s increasing penetration into human society (Scenario based).
• As it approaches or overlaps the society circle, it symbolizes AI's potential to dominate or even surpass human-defined systems.

Intersection Areas

The overlapping regions show areas of synergy:

• Humanities + Scientific Temper: Rational creativity and innovation.
• Humanities + AI: Augmented creativity and ethical considerations in technology.
• Scientific Temper + AI: Advanced problem-solving and evidence-based AI development.

Society Circle

• Encompasses all inner circles, representing the perimeter of human civilization.

Now, while there could be, mathematically speaking, 'n' different scenarios emanating from the interplay of these narratives, I have restricted my case to a 2x2 matrix with the following 4 scenarios:

Balanced Integration

• AI grows but remains balanced with humanities and scientific temper.
• Collaboration enhances all three domains.

Dominant AI

• AI surpasses the human society circle, marginalizing other domains.

Resilient Humanities

• Humanities grow significantly as society emphasizes creativity, ethics, and emotional intelligence.

Fragmentation

• Lack of common ground leads to humanities and scientific temper going their separate ways, with AI expanding distinctly.

Here is what the four scenarios would look like, as visual plots...

Each subplot represents a potential outcome of how humanities, scientific temper, and AI interact with each other as subsets of human society as a function of time. The radius of each circle reflects its influence, and their overlaps indicate areas of synergy or conflict.

Scenario 1: Balanced Integration

Outcome: Humanities, scientific temper, and AI grow in unison within society.

Interpretation:

Humanities expand to address ethical and creative needs.

Scientific temper supports the rational development of AI.

AI integrates as a supportive tool rather than a dominant force.

Scenario 2: Dominant AI

Outcome: AI rapidly surpasses the boundaries of human society, overshadowing other domains.

Interpretation:

Limited growth in humanities and scientific temper as AI automates or marginalizes them.

Society risks becoming AI-centric, potentially losing balance.

Scenario 3: Reasserted Humanities

Outcome: Humanities grow significantly, driving society’s focus on empathy and ethics.

Interpretation: Rapid expansion of humanities ensures human-centered progress.

Scientific temper complements this growth, while AI takes a supportive role.

Scenario 4: Fragmentation

Outcome: Lack of synergy causes divergence; AI expands without integration.

Interpretation:

Scientific temper diminishes, leading to unbalanced development.

AI grows independently, risking societal fragmentation.

Humanities maintain slow growth, is insufficient in bridging gaps.

Lastly, let me take inspiration from the BCG Matrix to visualize and place these plots in quadrants.

Lastly, I attempted the Manim animation engine within Python to create a dynamic visualization of the movement of the 'Humanities', 'Scientific Temper', and 'AI' circles across the 4 quadrants. You can view it here.